1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a foot pedal which is used for the bass drum in a drum set.
2. Prior Art
A foot pedal, used for the bass drum of a drum set, is designed to rotate a beater in accordance with foot pressure applied to a foot board thereof so that the drum head of the bass drum is beaten by the beater.
In order to stabilize the operation of the foot pedal, the conventional foot pedal is constructed in accordance with one of three construction countermeasures described as follows.
(1) In a first countermeasure, as illustrated in FIG. 1, a connection rod 7 interconnects a frame member 4, which rotatably supports a shaft axis 3 of a beater member 2, to a heel member 6, which supports a back edge portion of a foot board 5.
(2) In a second countermeasure, as illustrated in FIG. 1, a base plate 8 is provided between the frame member 4 the and heel member 6 so that the frame member 4 is attached to the base plate 8 by screws 9.
(3) In a third countermeasure, the above-mentioned first and second countermeasures are combined together, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,538,499.
In addition to the fast changes of a music performance these days, the performance technique using the foot pedal must be substantially changed. In making such changes, however, a conventional foot pedal, constructed in accordance with the above-mentioned countermeasures, cannot respond to such hard operations well. In short, the conventional foot pedal suffers from the following drawbacks, in the case of each of the countermeasures.
(a) In the foot pedal constructed in accordance with the first countermeasure, when the foot board 5 is stepped on during the performance, the heel member 6 may be somewhat elevated. In this countermeasure wherein the frame member 4 and heel member 6 are connected together by the connection rod 7 only, it is difficult to maintain the positional relationship between them. Therefore, it is impossible to stabilize the tone-generation timing and beating strength in response to the step-on operation of the foot board 5. In short, such countermeasure may affect the performability of the music.
(b) The foot pedal, constructed in accordance with the second countermeasure, may employ the so-called double-sided single-point-supporting-structure by which the frame member 4 is attached to the base plate 8. Due to such structure, the frame member 4 may be rotated with the base plate 8 about the supporting point, which is an unstable construction. In general, the bass drum is disposed within the drum set in an inclined manner. For this reason, the construction of this countermeasure may allow the base plate 8 to be bent during the operation of the foot pedal.
(c) In the third countermeasure, which is the combination of the first and second countermeasures, even the connection rod 7 cannot reinforce the strength of the connection between the frame member 4 and base plate 8 effectively . With such relatively weak reinforcement, the third countermeasure requires an increase in the number of the members thereof required. As described before, since the bass drum is disposed within the drum set in an inclined manner, there is a possibility that the base plate 8 will be subjected to the bending deformation.